Student lending in the United States has topped $1.3 trillion. Average indebtedness per borrower for the class of 2015 is approximately $35,000*. The cost of education continues to outpace inflation and federal default rates are in double digits. These market dynamics coupled with the passing of comprehensive education finance reforms and the increased scrutiny from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), have forced each member of the student loan value chain to rethink many aspects of their existing operating models.

PwC’s student lending and higher education specialists work with clients throughout the student lending value chain, assisting stakeholders with solutions to their complex business challenges.

Our work with colleges and universities is focused on helping boards, presidents and senior administration with sustainability, operational efficiencies and strategic focus to remain competitive in the unstable higher education market. With lender clients, we help craft and develop business and risk models to succeed in the highly competitive environment and help provide guidance on legacy portfolio management. Our work with Title IV Servicers (TIVAS) is unparalleled in the industry, creating effective operational models, compliance monitoring systems, and assessing risk.

Our insight and approach to strategy and growth identifies how your core capabilities stack up to opportunities for growth. Our practice specializes in strategy for student loan providers, including lenders, TIVA and non-profit servicers. In addition, we specialize in working with boards and college presidents on institutional positioning and enrollment strategies.

Third-party risk management: Program diagnostics to identify gaps against leading practices, transformational roadmaps in line with regulatory standards, TPRM office design and execution, technology enablement, and third-party assessments.

In our practice we assist clients with creating a customer centric organization, improving the customer experience, and complying with regulatory requirements. Our multidisciplinary approach to customer experience innovation gives you a 360-degree view of how to better create and deliver the right differentiating experiences at the right time. Our Service Positioning workshops help our clients align their service offering around what their customers perceive as valuable.

Our “manage to growth” strategy aligns priorities to fuel performance in a focused, accelerated way. As part of our work, we provide organizations with PwC’s perspective on the keys to managing the organization more effectively and a comprehensive view of all cost opportunities across the organization.

The following examples demonstrate how PwC assists our clients:

Operational cost and strategic sourcing: Identifying opportunities to improve processes based on leading practices